Why the standard deviation of set of data will always be greater than zero?

The standard deviation is always be equal or higher than zero. If my set of data is limited to whole numbers, all of which are equal, the standard deviation is 0. In all other situations, we first calculate the difference of each number from the average and then calculate the square of the difference. While the difference can be a negative, the square of the difference can not be. The square of the standard deviation has to be positive, since it is the sum of all positive numbers. If we calculate s2 = 4, then s can be -2 or +2. By convention, we take the positive root.